Simple DIY All Purpose Cleaner

Posted on May 13, 2013 by ade12hoops

There are so many products that we use around the house and don’t realize they include toxic chemicals and are harmful to our health and our families. This is a recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Wellness Mama, for a natural, chemical free all purpose cleaner. We keep two bottles (of different scents) to use in our kitchen and family room for counters, table tops and floors as well as in the bathroom.

You only need four ingredients and a spray bottle (I reuse an old Method spray bottle):

1 tsp borax
1/2 tsp washing soda/baking soda
1 tsp liquid castille soap
essential oils as preferred for scent – we love peppermint (about 15 -20 drops) and lavender orange (8 drops lavender and 10-12 drops orange)

I boil water on the stove in a teapot and then pour into a non-plastic pitcher and add the above ingredients and stir. I let it sit until it cools and then pour into the spray bottle.

Even though there are only 4 ingredients, some of the ingredients might be foreign to you. Above is a picture of each of the ingredients except for the essential oils (essentials oils can be purchased at Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, health food stores and distributors.) There are different grades of essential oils as well as organic versus non-organic…those are next on my list because I don’t know enough about them to recommend a specific kind.

For castille soap, I use the unscented Dr. Bronner’s because it is an organic soap made from extra virgin coconut, olive, jojoba and hemp oils. It can be purchased online, at Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, etc. We also use it as our laundry detergent, either the almond or lavender scent. Just a capful for a load of laundry since it is a concentrated soap. Normal laundry soap is one of the MOST toxic cleaning items in your home.

Borax, sodium borate, is a mineral that has been used for a long time as a component of detergents and is a natural laundry booster. It can be purchased at your local Target or other large box retailer. The same goes for purchasing baking soda or washing soda.

Not only does this give you a toxic free all purpose cleaner…it provides it at a much lower cost than purchasing already made at the store. Make it once and you will be hooked!

If you want to check the toxicity level of any of your household cleaning products you can do that by going to EWG’s cleaning product database and typing in your products.

Happy cleaning!

Cornucopia of Summer Fun

Posted on June 13, 2012 by ade12hoops

This is our first summer as CSA members…we are newbies! We are very excited for our deliveries – they start today! CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We have chosen Grant Family Farms as our CSA because they are an organic farm and they grow all their food locally as well as exchange for additional foods that are grown on the western slope of Colorado (mmm peaches and cherries). All food comes from the state of Colorado. It is a great way to build local, fresh produce into your menu each week, support local farmers and not have to set foot in a grocery store to do it. Here’s how our CSA works:

You choose the size bin you want each week – small, medium, large
You can choose from vegetables bins, fruit bins, free range eggs and organic cheeses (interesting to learn the difference and standards required between cage free and free range eggs)
Each week you get a “share” of the local produce (your bin)
You choose your pick-up location – we have enough people participating from our work place to serve as a pick-up location
The Farm provides recipe ideas each week, especially for the “unique” items – I will be experimenting with lots of fruits and vegetables and posting exciting new recipes this summer – first week will be a strawberry rhubarb tart
There is an exchange bin where you can swap out items you won’t use
Work for your food – we earn a discount on our shares by choosing a time over the summer to work on the Farm

Check it out. Find a farm near you so you can support local and have your fresh produce delivered to you each week. Share your recipe ideas. Share stories and pictures of the most unique fruit or vegetable you meet this summer. Let’s have some fun and optimize your health at the same time…if you run across any cornered tomatoes…let me know!

p.s. – make sure you plant plenty of basil even if you only have a porch or deck get some planters and plant away. I will be sharing pesto recipes with you during the summer and fall and you will want plenty of fresh basil to make fresh pesto for the summer and enough to stash to last you through the winter!

Not only IN but ON

Posted on April 6, 2012 by ade12hoops

When thinking about optimizing health, I have recently been challenged by not only what I put IN my body, but what I put ON my body.

We use a myriad of products everyday that have the potential to add toxins to our bodies and most of us, me included, don’t think twice about it. What are some of the items I am talking about that have potential toxins?

Body soap
Hand soap
Shampoo and conditioner
Hair dye
Hair products such as gel and hair spray
Makeup – foundation, eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara, blush, make-up remover
Lotions (including baby lotions)
Water bottles
Baby bottles
Lip Balm, chap stick, lip stick
Sunscreen
Nail polish, nail polish remover
Perfume
Deodorant
Toothpaste
Water – both drinking and bathing
Kitchen and bathroom cleaners
Candles, air fresheners
Dry cleaning

We inhale many fumes from the above items as well as absorb them through our skin and hair. Check next time you use your lotion or shampoo and read the list of ingredients. Can you even pronounce some of the words?

Now, if you are like me, the above list seems overwhelming. Where do I start? Do substitutes exist that are as effective? I can’t switch everything out at once. How much will this cost me? How do I know what is good and what is bad?

My advice is to pick one item from the list above. See what you are currently using. What’s in it? What does it cost? What is its toxic level? Compare it to toxin free items in the same category and try some different ones to see what works. The next question is how do you find toxic levels and options that don’t include the toxins?

The Environmental Working Group has an awesome website called EWG’s Skin Deep® Cosmetic Database. It allows you to lookup any product and see the toxicity rating. EWG rates the products on a scale from 0-10 with 10 being the most toxic. They include the following categories:

Sun
Makeup
Skin Care
Hair
Eye Care
Nails
Fragrance
Babies and Moms
Oral Care
Men’s

Join me in my challenge to check out items I use daily to see how they rank. If you find items that are toxic, find an effective alternative. Then share with me what you find. I would like to develop a list of recommendations that include effective, reasonably priced alternatives for each of the categories above

I’ll start…the first area I tackled was deodorant. I’m sure you have all heard the reports that deodorant contains aluminum but does that matter when the alternatives don’t work and you smell all day?!!!

I tried many options before finding something I liked. Finding a solution is based on your body chemistry and preference of smells. I tried one of ALBA’s deodorants and it was not effective for me. Then I tried the Burt’s Bees products (yes, both the woman’s and the men’s). Either they weren’t effective in curbing my body odor or I smelled like an herb garden. Then I found Pit Putty with Bubble and Bee Organic. They have a great program when purchasing deodorant – if that particular scent and combination doesn’t work for you, you can return it and pick a different one. I made my first purchase and it didn’t work – I still smelled and I wasn’t fond of the scent. I made my exchange and picked a different Pit Putty with different ingredients and scent. I LOVE it – it works wonders for me AND it rates a 0 on toxins with EWG’s Skin Deep®.

So tell me – what you have found in the above categories that is low in toxins and works well for you?